Stepping into the Kotikatu365 user’s shoes

Author: Tiina Nykänen,
UX Designer

End user testing of a web service ensures that the system really meets the end user’s requirements and delivers the designed user experience. In end user testing, all aspects that are confusing or might be perceived as bugs by the users are eliminated early in the service development phase with the lowest possible price tag.

When Health City Finland and Codemate started designing Kotikatu365, a web service for a new way of living aiming for effortless everyday life with a bit of luxury, it was clear that the development process would include end user testing.

Kotikatu365 (“Home street 365”) is Health City Finland’s new urban living concept. It combines a cozy modern apartment, common spaces and shared vehicles for the residents, and additional on-demand living services such as handyman, cleaning, healthcare, and food delivery.

Codemate designed and executed technically the Kotikatu365 web service where the residents can book and buy services for their home. The development process included the planning and execution of end user testing.

The goal of the project was to design an online service that brings all the available services to the residents 24/7 with only a few clicks. Needless to say, we aimed to create a web service that is extremely straightforward and effortless to use for both the resident and the service provider.

Early involvement

We wanted to involve the end users to the project at an early stage. With end user testing, we manage to catch the most important usability issues very quickly.

It is obvious that redrawing is much faster than re-coding. If the first end user tests are performed just before the product launch (or after?!), implementing the changes takes a lot of time. We prefer the shorter loop.

Furthermore, usability testing gives us a fresh perspective – everyone who’s working on the service get’s so easily blindsided. Users who have never seen the service give us new ideas and thoughts, and we can take those into consideration at an early stage of development. And because the users had a chance to affect the service, the reception of the final service will be more favorable.

Tested by 5 end users

The Kotikatu365 web service was tested by 5 end users who are actual Kotikatu365 residents from different age groups and backgrounds.

The figure might sound low but a study shows that you don’t need more than 5 users to find the biggest usability issues. After 5 end user testing sessions, you won’t find more critical issues and the users will start to repeat the same thing over and over again.

Using the Kotikatu365 service had to be pleasant for young people but also really easy for the senior users as well. This is the thing that made this project so intriguing and one of the main reasons why end user testing was taken seriously in this project.

How we did it

First, we chose the most important user flows and planned the testing tasks based on these flows. We recognized that creating an account to the portal is the most important flow. It was also the trickiest to design because residents have to be identified before giving them access but still it needed to be really fast and simple. Other tested flows included renting a guest room and ordering different kind of services like the cleaning service.

During the end user testing session, there was one moderator giving tasks to a single test user and one observer making notes. After the testing session, the testing team took 15 to 20 minutes to review the test results and findings.

Overall, we did two testing rounds during the development of Kotikatu365. During the first round, we only tested with an Invision prototype that was made of static images. The tasks were really precise so we could test the features we wanted. We found out that younger testers didn’t have that many issues, but senior users had problems especially with registration.

The registration had been designed using good usability principles like keeping the contrast optimal, avoiding using small fonts and keeping the steps as simple as possible, but with end user testing, we noticed that the design had to be even clearer for the senior users.

We solved the discovered problems by making the fonts bigger, adding more whitespace and making the inputs stand out better. After this, we did some internal testing to verify the changes and only after that started coding the service.

What I learned

It was very clear from the beginning that stepping into the user’s shoes was a must-do in this case. No matter how hard you try to keep the end users in mind while doing a web service design, you won’t get the realistic view unless you see how they end users interact with the service.

The first Kotikatu365 location has been built to the Oulu riverside followed by projects in Vantaa, Kuopio and Kuusamo in the following years. These apartment buildings with Kotikatu365 web service are setting the new standard for modern-day urban living. It is cracking to play a part in this development.

I wonder what would have happened if we hadn’t done the end user testing at the beginning of the project? For sure, we would have had the web service up and running but maybe with significantly fewer and unhappy users? Or in the worst-case scenario, no users at all? End user testing is not a step to be discarded. So go on – jump into the user’s shoes!